TEAM RNS PRESENTS

TITLE: Latenighttales Turin Brakes

LABEL: Late Night Tales

RIPPER: Team RNS

1hr 15min total-109.0mb

RELEASE DATE: 2004-02-16

RIP DATE: 2004-02-07

01 Nicolai Dungar - Last Night I  6:47

Dreamt of Mississippi

02 John Barry - Midnight Cowboy   2:45

03 Silver Jews - Send in the      5:07

04 Les Barons feat. Henri Gao-Bi  6:13

05 Grant Green - A Walk in the    6:46

06 G. Love & Special Sauce -      4:02

Blues Music (Album Version)

07 John Hammond - Dreamy Eyed Girl3:47

08 Chris Whitley - Breaking Your  3:13

09 Dave Palmer - Speed Trials     3:37

10 J.J. Cale - Magnolia           3:25

11 Talk Talk - I Believe in You   3:35

12 Al Di Meola feat. John         5:38

McLaughlin - Short Tales of the Black

13 Smog - Cold Blooded Old Times  3:35

14 Gillian Welch - One and Only   5:29

15 Jessica Lauren - A Pearl From  3:34

16 Turin Brakes - Moonlight Mile  4:02

17 Brian Blessed - The White City 4:05

his is the blues, but not as you know

it, Stagger Lee.

This is the blues as in bruised

melancholia, as in sinuous guitar

playing, as in simply beautiful songs.

This is the blues as presented by two

fellows from South London; the blues

straight down from the Balham Delta.

So far Turin Brakes' Olly Knights  and

Gale Paridjanian have released two

albums, 2001's The Optimist LP and this

year's follow-up, Ether Song (which

yielded the top five hit Pain Killer).

The Optimist LP, quietly and

stealthily snuck into people's memories

and consciousness, finally being

nominated for a Mercury Music Prize and

accruing nearly quarter of a million

sales despite never rising above 27 in

the album charts.

Their music, definitely (defiantly?)

English, recalled Tyrannosaurus Rex and

Hunky Dory-period Bowie, and yet

somehow encompassed a swathe of

American influences, too; their songs

expansive rather than claustrophobic,

visions of the Big Blue as well as the

Cold  Grey. Initially billed as part of

the New Acoustic Movement, 2003's Ether

Song moved away from its predecessor with

a more strident approach. The speaker

dial might not be required to go up to

11, but it's certainly nudging seven.

The secret of good DJing is not about

bombast or cutting or decks-terity, it's

about programming and taste. And here

Turin Brakes offer their taste, and

it's full of shimmering and jagged

guitars, contemplative songs and a hefty

dose of the blues (and a li'l bit of

funk when required). One great song

straight after another, no messing, no

Thus we have Swedish singer's Nicolai

Dunger own Delta meditation, Last Night

I Dreamt Of Mississippi, while John

Hammond, whose father signed Aretha

Franklin and Bob Dylan, sings Dreamy Eyed

Girl. JJ Cale offers Magnolia, that gal

he left in New Orleans, culled from his

Naturally LP, then there's Gillian

Welch's One And Only from her debut

album and Turin Brakes' keyboardist Dave

Palmer weighs in with the winsome Speed

We couldn't leave without also

mentioning the inclusion of Talk Talk's I

Believe In You, taken from the brilliant

Spirit Of Eden, which acts as both

soothing voice and palliative as well

as intro music before the Turin Brakes'

stage performances. And there is also

the not-so-trifling matter of the now

traditional Late Night Stories'

exclusive cover version, the Brakes

offering us a chilled reading of The

Stones' Moonlight Mile.

From Balham to Mississippi and back,

Turin Brakes' console and cajole us

with blues for the noughties (added

guitars optional). And you don't even

have sell your soul at the crossroads.